Sekisemimaru Shrine – Echoing Prayers for the Performing Arts at Osaka Pass –

【Highlights】
・A highway shrine enshrined at the checkpoint of Osaka Pass, with deep ties to the old roads
・A sacred site for music and performing arts, dedicated to Semimaru, a legendary master of the biwa
・The hexagonal “Shigure Lantern,” an Important Cultural Property, standing beside the main hall of the Lower Shrine
・The stone monument of “Seki Shimizu,” known from a poem by Ki no Tsurayuki

【History and Culture】
Sekisemimaru Shrine is believed to have been founded as a guardian shrine and dosojin (traveler’s deity) of the checkpoint at Osaka Pass, where the Tokaido and Tosando routes once passed. The shrine is divided into an Upper Shrine and a Lower Shrine: the Upper Shrine enshrines the spirit of Semimaru, a master of the biwa, together with Sarutahiko-no-Mikoto, while the Lower Shrine enshrines Semimaru together with Toyotama-hime-no-Mikoto.

With Semimaru enshrined here, Sekisemimaru Shrine came to be revered as the ancestral deity of music and the performing arts. Beside the worship hall of the Lower Shrine stands the hexagonal Shigure Lantern, said to date to the Kamakura period and designated an Important Cultural Property. At the entrance to the grounds, you can also find the stone monument of Sekishimizu, known from a poem by Ki no Tsurayuki. It is a spot where the history of the highways around Ousaka no Seki overlaps with the culture of the biwa, waka poetry, and the performing arts.